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ORATION 



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FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 



oath fl^HrDliUit ^ifjioijiciil ^atictji, 



HIBERNIAN HALL, IN CHARLESTON, 



WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 18G0, 



THOMAS M. HANCKEL. 



PtTBLlSUED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOIMETV. 




CHARLESTON : 

PRINTED BY WALKER, EVANS & CO.. 

3 Broad and 101 East Bay Streets. 

18G0. 




f 



ORATION 



DELIVERED OX THE 



FIFTH A]^:N^iyEESARY 



^outh (3t;Hri)IinE giBt^nicHl ^acictg, 



HIBERNIAN HALL, IN CHARLESTON, 



AVEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1860. 



THOMAS M. HANCKEL. 



30 b 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOCIETV. 



CHARLESTON : 

STEAM POWER PRESSES OF WALKER, EVANS tc CO., 

No. 3 Broad and 101 East Bay Streets. 

1860. 



50451 




ORATION. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 

Although the human mind is an organism so nicely adjusted, 
that, I suppose, it would be impossible to deprive it of even the 
least of its powerS without crippling the whole intellectual man, 
yet of all the faculties which compose its wonderful structure, I 
think there is no one so necessary to its healthful life, and its 
vigorous action, as the power of memory. And this not only 
because without any memory at all, the immediate and momen- 
taiy percejDtions of our senses would be the whole sum of human 
existence, and we would stand ujjon a narrow strip of life, 
speechless, thoughtless, and almost soulless, while each passing 
moment would di'aw behind us an impenetrable veil of oblivion, 
cutting us off from all knowledge of the past, and, in conse- 
quence, from all expectation of the future, and leaving us the 
miserable slaves of accident and the rudest mechanism of the 
senses ; not only because without a vigorous memory, there 
could be no accurate perception of differences, and therefore no 
analysis, and no correct comparison of ideas, and no clear knowl- 
edge of their relations, and, therefore, no process of reasoning, 
and no swift deduction from premises to conclusions; not only 
because, under the system of philosophy taught by the inductive 
science of modei'n times, it is ft'om the storehouse of a laboi-ious 
experience, and a full and abundant memory, that we draw all 
that wealth of knowledge which is the magnificent endowment 
of our age 3 but because memory entei'S into the essential ele- 
ments of our existence, and wields an influence over the life, the 
character, and the affections, which may not be So obvious, but 
is of incalculable importance. For, while it is from the memory 



that we derive our knowledge of duration, it is through the mem- 
ory also that our human life is grafted upon eternity, and by its 
vital power that this life progresses with the infinite. And as the 
highest evidence we possess of the soul's immaterial existence 
is, I think, to be found in the memory, and memory is, I believe, 
a true spiritual sense, corresponding to the senses of the body, 
and attests to our consciousness the presence of the ideal world, 
as full}' and as truly as do the bodily senses attest the existence 
of the world of matter, so it is memory which defines our indi- 
viduality, and determines our identity, and is the native region 
and the genial atmosjjhere of our ideal and sjiiritual life. Mem- 
ory is also the source of all moral responsibility, and a necessary 
element of all moral character, and the foundation of all our 
bodily and mental habits; and with the loss of memory, the 
soul would lose its sense of accountability, and its appreciation 
of moral beauty, the mind would lose all its habits of jjercep- 
tion and thought, the tongue would cleave t?o the roof of the 
mouth, and the right hand would forget its cunning. 

But in nothing is the power of memory displayed in a higher 
degree than in its control over the affections — the highest and 
the noblest portion of our nature. JSTothing which is not long 
remembered affects us deeply. For that which is easily forgot- 
ten is never incorporated with our inner life, and is never 
grasped by our sympathies, and the fleeting smiles and tears of 
childhood's brief memories are a proverb. That, therefore, is 
a false and shallow philosojohy, which exclaims, "Let the dead 
past bury its dead." How can that be called a dead past, which 
is quick with the vitality of our spiritual life, and with the 
strength of our individual natures and attections, which deter- 
mines our identity, and defines our individuality, and b}' whose 
fruitful power memories have formed themselves into habits, 
and habits have become consolidated into character. This en- 
grossing devotion to the present may, indeed, bring a flushing 
of the blood and an energy of the nerves, resulting in a restless 
activity. But if actions which go freighted with thoiight and 
an earnest purpose, find a surer haven and bring a larger bless- 
ing, and words, and thoughts, and deeds, spoken and done with 
fitness, like seeds sown in their native soil and in a genial 
season, yield a larger and a better harvest, then may we well 
look to the past for its lessons and its guidance. 

And what thoughtful and earnest man would forget or neglect 



the past? Who would forget liis pure, and peaceful, and happy 
hours, and all the glory of his life? He would as soon close his 
eyes to the glad sunshine and rejoicing nature. Who has not 
known the griefs and the desolations of life? Who has not felt, 
with Tennyson at the sea-washed grave of his friend, 

"And the stately ships go on 

To their haven under the hill; 
But oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

Break, break, break, 

At the foot of thy crags, oh sea ! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 

Can never come back to me." 

Yet who would forget his sorrows? For our sorrows flow 
from our affections; and our affections are our nohlest and most 
precious life, and as dear as life itself. And we would as soon 
destroy our bodies, because they are the sources of pain as well 
as of pleasure, as commit the spiritual suicide of forgetfulness. 
Who does not feel that his griefs have linked him with the ideal 
and the immortal ? Who will not say with the poet, 

"Ah ! sweeter to be drunk with loss, 

To dance with death, to beat the ground, 

Than that the victor Hours should scorn 

The long result of love, and boast, 
' Behold the man who loved and lost, 

But all he was is overworn.' " 

Who would forget his errors and his follies, his humiliating 
errors and his sad mistakes, if he remembers them with a brave 
spirit and an intelligent purpose? Who would forget them, 
unless he is willing to forfeit the moral endowments of his na- 
ture, and forget that he is a responsible being, capable of appre- 
ciating what is noble, and pure, and holy? What lessons may 
they not teach us — lessons of humility, lessons of caution, les- 
sons of mercy, lessons of an abiding faith in the inflexible laws 
of life, and the moral government of heaven. 

Indeed, so great and inestimable is the power of memory, 
and so close and intimate the connection between the past and 
the present, that I think there can be no healthful or valuable 
development of our mental and moral nature and activity, 
which is not the logical sequence of the past ; in which the offi- 
ces of life are not assumed with a due regard to the training of 



. 6 

the past, in whicli the duties of life are not performed with a 
just consideration of the relations of the past, where a great 
benefit does not receive an overflowing measure of gratitude, 
and a great wrong is not followed by a great repentance and a 
great conquest over evil, and so on through all the expressions 
of our nature. 

And the great and crowning work of the Christian fa:^h has 
been this : that it has enabled sorrowful, erring, and guilty 
men to face the past; to face it, indeed, with bowed heads and 
stricken hearts, but still to face the irrevocable past, with the 
light of its truths interpreting its lessons, with its offers of par- 
don dispelling its gloom, with its supernatural strength giving 
life and energy to the present, and with its wonderful promises 
controlling the future. 

Memory then, is, indeed, that golden bowl which gathers the 
precious drops of life, and which carries and pi-eserves forever, 
the essential qualities of our intellectual and moral character. 
It is, indeed, that silver cord, as slight as fancy, but as bright as 
thought, and as strong as life, which, beginning with the first 
look of love which the nursing infant lifts to its mother's face, 
entwines itself with the whole growth of existence and the pro- 
gress of time, binding together thought with thought, feeling 
with feeling, action with action, in the indestructible unity of 
an individual life, in the complete development of an individual 
nature, in the inextricable responsibility of an individual char- 
acter, until, to human eyes, it is lost in the grave,' and " the 
silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl is broken," and the 
spirit returns to its Maker. 

And what memory is to the individual, history is to a nation. 
That a people should have any history at all, that there should 
be acts and events, passions and agitations, social interests and 
political powers, whicli reach, in their influence and eftects, to 
the limits of a cei'tain country, and there sharply cease, pow- 
erfully aflecting this people, yet touching no other, is the high- 
est evidence they can have of their national existence. And it 
is equally true, that a people without a history — without an}' 
record of their civil organization and political action, whether 
this record be in oral traditions, or in written documents — can- 
not be said to have any national life whatever. They would 
represent but a noisy, thoughtless and aindess rabbk^, or at 
best, a fluctuating and capricious band of savages ; for the 



bond of all society is sympathy. And the thoughts and the feel- 
ings of men live in their actions more than in language itself — 
more than in anything else. United action becomes, therefore, 
the highest source of sympathy. And the history of a people 
is both the record and the evidence of their united action, and, 
therefore, the true representative of their national life. The 
construction of society and government is not a work of human 
choice and wisdom, but is the result of historical necessity. 
And the people who should lose their history, would either 
soon lapse into barbarism, or soon submit to a conqueror. Or, 
should they willfully forget or destroy their history, they must 
pass through a great political and social convulsion before be- 
ginning again to build the fabric of their national life and 
strength. 

The strength of Eoman greatness was sapped when the men 
of Eome began to forget the story of her power, her wisdom, 
aud her glory, and the Eoman nation perished when Eoman 
history was ended, and her barbarous conquerors thronged the 
Forum and crowded the banks of Tiber, with a race who knew 
nothing of her heroic legends, and had never heard of her Con- 
suls, her Tribunes, her Senate, her great Eepublic, and her 
mighty Csesars. New and great nations were to spring from 
the loins of the invaders, but though her people aud her seven 
hills still remained, old Eome was dead forever. And when the 
people of France, fiercely desperate, and drunk with excess of 
philosophical liberty, madly demolished in a day the work of 
centuries, tore down the throne of Henr}- IV, and Louis XIV, 
obliterated all the land-marks of their social and political his- 
tory, and launched the State upon a treacherous sea of consti- 
tutional theories and political experiments, France laj^ faint 
with weakness, and gasping in the convulsive struggles of a 
mortal agony, until her First Consul, gathering in his hand the 
broken powers of the State, led her through a new history of 
bloody conquest, martial fame, and national power and glory, 
and, as the Great Napoleon, established his imperial dynasty. 
And to this dynasty the France of our day, after other experi- 
ments, and other failures, has again turned for refuge as to the 
only representative of history she has left, for the ancient his- 
tory she can never recall. 

As memory, therefore, is to the individual a true witness of 
his spiritual existence, so is history the true witness of a na- 



tional life. It is a witness to whose testimony we must care- 
fully listen, if we would understand not only the origin of a 
people, but the development of their national character, and 
the sources of their national institutions. For, it would be 
strange, indeed, if history, which laid the foundation, should 
take no part in raising the superstructure. 

I have endeavored, on a former occasion, to show that all 
government is based upon individual power, and that nature, 
society and history are the great sources of power. If we ex- 
amine the records of history, we will, I think, discover endless 
illustrations of its truth ; and will find, in the striking language 
of Paschal, that " if the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, 
the whole face of the world would have been changed." But 
we must never forget that, as two great contending hosts are 
hung in sj^ace, waging a deadly warfare, whose conflicts are 
told in the sublime music of Milton's glorious epic, or in the 
still more awful words of inspired Scripture, so among men two 
great classes contend for the mastery in society — the defenders 
of wholesome law, and the champions of selfish and unbridled 
license. And as the powers of evil present themselves in the 
brawny muscles, the fierce passions, and the hoarse clamors of 
depraved, selfish and ignorant men, so they can onl}^ be suc- 
cessfully encountered by the courage, the strength, the intelli- 
gence, and the energy of individual men — by the simple and 
the positive power of an actual presence. It is between these 
two contending forces that the moral law interposes, and by 
the instinctive awe of its presence, by its appeal to the reason, 
and by its control over the conscience, throws the weight of its 
authority and its strength into the scale of right, and assures a 
triumph to the advocates of truth and justice. Now, this of- 
fice and power of the moral law is represented by institutions. 
And history is the source and evidence of custom ; and custom 
is the strength of institutions. When the renowned John Selden 
was asked on what principle and maxim of the English Consti- 
tution did he rest the right to resist tyranny, "on the immemo- 
rial custom of Englishmen," was the reply. In this brief and 
pithy answer, he not only announced a fundamental inaxim of 
the constitutional law of England, but a great principle of all 
constitutional history. For the autlioi-ity of custom is of uni- 
versal application, whether it is reduced to the form of written 



9 

law, or whether it stands only in history. That which has 
been once done, and well and successfully done, carries with it 
the intrinsic weight of precedent and example ; and precedent 
and example repeatedly followed, acquires the force of custom ; 
and customs, well known and long established, settle down into 
fundamental law; and fundamental law, of necessity, developes 
itself into institutions. For, what are institutions but law in 
action, law in habitual action ? And it is because institutions 
are the representatives of unquestioned law, that they become 
the defences behind which the better, the higher, and the purer 
elements of society are rallied and organized, and from this 
vantage ground are able to repel the assaults of folly, ignorance 
and evil. As memory, therefore, is the source of habit to the 
individual, so is history the foundation of custom and the 
strength of institutions; and no wise or thoughtful man will 
overlook and undervalue this gi-eat boon of the past. The in- 
stitutions of a people are like the language of a people, which, 
in itself, is nothing but a collection of articulate sounds, but 
which, by the force of custom and common consent, confirmed 
and established by the authority of genius, not only gives utter- 
ance to the thoughts and the feelings of one generation, but pre- 
serves and perpetuates the thoughts and the feelings of many 
ages. They ai*e like the atmosj)here, with no light in itself, but 
distributing light through all the spaces of nature. But, as the 
noble monuments which the genius of Greece has reared over 
her dead language may remind us that even the most exquisite 
language m which the speech of man was ever uttered, may 
die ; and as the rising and the setting sun may admonish us 
that the light is not in the atmosphere, but that when the great 
fountain of light is withdrawn it shrivels into darkness, and 
all its brilliant power is gone, so may those grand themes of 
history, which treat of the rise and fall of empires, teach us 
that the essential life of nations is not in institutions, but in 
something higher, and deeper, and wider. And as the anato- 
mist takes away limb after limb, which, as a physician, he would 
nurse and heal, and cuts his way through bone and muscle, 
down to the throbbing heart and the quivering brain, that he 
may find and explore the very seat and sources of physical 
health and life, so must we not undervalue institutions, but we 
must find our way beyond them to the vital powers of govern- 



10 

ment as they exist in all the simplicity of au individual intelli- 
gence, in all the dignity of an actual presence, and in all the 
warmth and sympathy of an actual humanity. 

The Common LaAv of England, and the administration of jus- 
tice in her courts, affords so striking and condensed an illustra- 
tion of M'hat I have been last saying of the power of individual 
men, the conflict of the social forces, the authority of the moral 
law, and the great office of history, that 1 cannot refrain from 
dwelling upon it for a moment. For what is the Cora«ion Law — 
that noble system of laws so wide and so strong in its power, 
so plastic in its structure, so pliant in its adaptation, so com- 
prehensive in principle, so minute in detail ; which invests the 
throne of the monarch with its prerogatives, and the imperial 
parliament with its privileges, and yet guards the meanest hut 
of the subject so that the king cannot enter it ; which equally 
protects the liberties of the city of London, entrenched behind 
the battlements of ancient charters and immemorial usage, and 
shelters the humblest flower that blooms in the widow's garden 
and is watered by her hand ? AVhat is this Common Law but a 
priceless treasure, which has been amassed by the authority and 
power of English Judges, who have gathered the great princi- 
ples of justice and law, as they lay like native ore in the in- 
stincts, the consciences and the customs of the English people, 
and stamjjing them with the royal image and superscription of 
judicial genius, have sent forth their judgments as the current 
justice of the realm, and the established standards of 'social and 
political riglit? The power of the English Judges is a power 
which has not only interpreted law, but in what is known to 
lawyers as judicial legislation, has made law, and in the notable 
instance of the fictions of " a fine and common recovery" for 
cutting oft' entails, actuallj^ repealed the Act, and defied the 
authorit}' of parliament itself And how do the questions arise 
whic-h these judges decide, but in the conflict between right 
and wrong, justice and injustice, truth and error in society, as 
they are represented by their advocates within the bar, each the 
champion of his cause, and each with sul)tle power and unspar- 
ing determination grappling witli liis opponent, and hotly strug- 
gling foi- the victory ? And, aside from tlicir individual genius, 
what has given to the judges of England tlieir ])ower to ex- 
pound and to make law, hut her judicial institutions, that 
organization of her courts which preserves the in(lei)endence of 



11 

the English Judiciary — that " immemorial custom of Eiiglish- 
men," to defend the sanctity and the independence of the Eng- 
lish Bench? And what has preserved and transmitted to us the 
knowledge of this law, as it was expounded by its oracles, but 
the records of the court, writing when each new truth was 
questioned and by the ordeal rendered certain, each new prin- 
ciple of justice was ascertained, each new question of disputed 
right was decided, and each new rule of social and political 
conduct was determined ? And this record is history. 

These, then, are some of the great offices of history, and even 
from this partial and inadequate view, we may well conclude 
that history is truly the life of nations ; that it is, indeed, that 
magnetic influence, passing from individual to individual, 
through all the limits of the State, which concentrates the en- 
ergies and attracts the affections of a peojjle, and with a power 
higher than the mountains, deeper than the rivers, sterner 
than the ocean, binds them together in the close ties of an 
active, national life, in the complete development of national 
institutions and national power, in the unavoidable responsibil- 
ity of national character, to last as long as their history lasts, 
and to end when their history is closed. 

And here arises a beautiful harmony between our individual 
and our social life. In the material world, the objects of our 
senses all deeply engage the affections, attracting and fascinat- 
ing us, exciting our wonder and our admiration, stimulating 
our eager curiosity and our laborious care. The sweet face of 
woman, the beautiful play and the winsome ways of children, 
the fair scenes of nature, '' the bright flowers and the glad 
grass," the cloudy grandeur of the mountains, the solemn arch 
of heaven, and the majestic progress of the stars, all mysteri- 
ously stir the heart, and declare that the moral office of the 
senses is to call us out of ourselves, and to fix our thoughts and 
affections on some outward object of care and interest. They 
all attest that even in the world of sense, keen desire, and pro- 
ductive energy, and self-forgetfulness, and protecting care, and 
engrossing affection, are the genial and exhilarating atmos- 
phere of a pure and elevated spiritual life. To this office of 
the senses do we owe the rise and progress of all the physical 
sciences; to this do we owe the pale enthusiasm and the gen- 
tle graces of the students of nature; to this the uncalculating 
heroism which has stormed the battlements of the icy king, 



12 

where he holds his court amid the frozen twilight of the fur- 
thest pole. 

Now, what is done for us by the senses in the world of mat- 
ter, is done by memory in the world of thought. For memory 
can weave a spell over the heart from which neither the lapse 
of time can carry us, nor all the fascinations of novelty nor all 
the wiles of beauty can allure us. Before 

" Its soft and summer breath, whose tender power 
Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour," 

the thoughts and the passions are bowed like reeds before the 
gale, and the spirit owns a despotic master. And as between 
sons of the same household 

"there blossoms up 
From out a common vein of memory, 
Sweet household talk and phrases of the hearth," 

and all the gentle bonds of brotherhood ; as from out the blend- 
ed memories of parent and child there springs up the noble 
harvest of parental and filial love; as it is when we recall our 
own experience of Heaven's mercy and goodness, and rise on 
the wings of memory, along the heights of the inspired records, 
through " the years of the right hand of the most high," up to 
the very throne of God, that there steals over the spirit the 
ineffable light of the love of God ; so it is by the bl;ending our 
individual memories with the memory of our native land as 
preserved in her history, that there is born the generous love of 
countr}^ — an emotion which stands next to the love of God, and 
is in perfect harmony with it. 

Thus have I endeavored to present a brief and inadequate view 
of a portion of the Philosophy of History. But the history of the 
world is a bewildering study. \Yhat mind can grasp its vast 
compass or explore its endless i-amitications 't The triangular 
survey of our single coast has nearly consumed the lifetime of 
its distinguished chief. Who shall undertake to make such a 
survey of the boundless coasts of the globe ? The imagination 
faints, the power of conception fails, and philosophy is exhaust- 
ed when wo undertake the theme of universal history. Rather 
may each one tui'u to the histor}^ of liis own country to find 
sul)jects enough foi- useful research and intelligent investigation. 
So hit us turn to the history of South Carolina. 



13 

In that wonderful palace, where was held the exhihition of 
the industry of all nations, South Carolina occupied but an 
obscure corner of the splendid structure, and contributed little 
else that was worthy of note but a plain and simple bale of 
cotton. And yet as that familiar object greeted the eyes of the 
thoughtful traveler from our shores, not onl}^ was his spirit 
refreshed by gentle memories of the frugal life and the simple 
habits of our plantation homes, and by inspiring thoughts of 
the pure women and the noble men Avho have been gathered 
around their hearths, but he was also reminded of that con- 
servative energy of our institutions and that admirable organi- 
zation of our labor which has given to the world that great 
staple which has been crowned king of commerce, peace and 
plenty, whose saffron flower might well rank with the rose of 
England and the lilies of France, in the extent of its dominion 
and the potency of its sway, and the daily bulletins of whose 
royal progress are flashed on the wings of lightning, and hur- 
ried on the eager stej^s of steam to the remotest quarters of the 
civilized world, while anxious thousands crowd the marts of 
commerce and .throng the world's exchanges, waiting to hear 
the tidings they shall bring. So may we find in the brief his- 
tory of our State the development of great principles of national 
life and constitutional law, which may well engage our thoughts 
and arrest our earnest attention. 

One reason, I think, why the early history of the State has 
not received a larger share of our interest and attention, is to 
be found in the fact that the most of those institutions which, 
as members of the Anglo-Saxon family, we chiefly value and 
cherish, are an inheritance from our English forefathers, and 
have been developed and elaborated upon English soil, and that 
on a grander theatre of action, and a larger scale of experiment, 
than could be embraced in the limits of our State histories. 
And hence English history has to a large extent engrossed the 
interest and the investigation of our scholars and statesmen. 

But there are three great institutions, which have been the 
peculiar result of our history as a State, which will well reward 
a careful investigation. These are the Republic, the Institution 
of African Slaver}^, and the Sovereignty of the States which 
compose the American Union. 

The history of the two first have been frequently and ably 
treated. Permit me, this evening, very briefly to investigate the 



14 

history of that Sovereignty of the States, which forms so striking 
a feature in the structure of our government, and one so little 
understood beyond the limits of our country, and to examine 
some of the causes which have produced it. In using the term, 
the Sovereignty of the State, I do not intend to suggest any 
question of controvers}^ ; neither is it necessary, nor is this 
the occasion to insist upon the technical accuracy of the lan- 
guage, in its political aspects. 

By the Sovereignty of the State of South Carolina, I liere only 
mean to designate that political individuality of the State for 
which she is indebted to the favor of no earthly power whatso- 
ever, but which was the growth of her history and the conquest 
of her strength. I mean that political individuality which f nee 
existing and established, could only cease to exist b}'- her volun- 
tary action, or be lost by her conquest, and which there is no 
line of her history to show that she has ever voluntaril}' surren- 
dered, or has ever been torn from her l)y the arm of the con- 
queror. I mean that political individuality which conti'ols us in 
our nearest and dearest rights, and which wields the awful 
power of life and death over its citizens. I mean that political 
individuality which impersonates the august principles of social 
order and civil authorit}^ so that the elementary processes of 
justice proclaim themselves the guardians of the peace and the 
dignity of the State of South Carolina. I mean that political 
individuality which alone exercises the wide and comprehensive 
power of eminent domain and territoi^ial possession, so that the 
soil of the State is sacred from the footstep of the intruder, be- 
cause her natural landmarks and her topographical monuments 
are inscribed with the name of the State of South Carolina. I 
do not disguise my own perfect conviction that the political 
individuality I have thus described is what the expounders of 
international law, from the time of Grotius to this day, have 
been pleased to designate by the name of the Sovereignty of the 
State. But I do not wish now to insist upon it. It is sufficient 
for my purpose if such a political individuality is admitted to ex- 
ist, as has essentially aided to mould the face of society in the 
several States, and has exerted a powerful influence upon the 
administration of the Federal Government and the constitu- 
tional history of the country. 

What, then, were the historical causes which led the colon 



15 

which, nearly two centuries ago, was planted upon the banks of 
the Ashley, to the position and the power of a Sovereign State? 
First, then, I think it may be safely asserted, as a general 
truth of all the first emigrations to the various American Colo- 
nies, that they came emphatically to found States. They 
adopted naturally, as a matter of choice and necessity, the 
main body and the general features of the laws of the countr}- 
from which tney came. But still the States they came to found 
were to be States with new policies and new laws, vitall}^ affect- 
ing the interests of society and the powers of government ; or, 
if States with no essential modifications of the laws and the 
policy the)' left behind, at least States which, as distinct politi- 
cal communities, were to be rather the political appendages of 
the mother-country than its subject colonies, adding to her 
fame, her power and her commerce, but not subject to the full 
measure and the minute detail of her domestic law — owing her 
aid and allegiance, but expected from their position and their 
circumstances to exercise a large share of the privileges, and to 
feel a large share of the responsibilities of self-government. In 
most instances, this was either manifest on the face of the _ 
charter of each colony, or was the immediate motive of the 
emigrants themselves, or the direct policy of those who sent 
them. Even where this was not so clearly the case, the in- 
dividual character and the exclusive policy of the neighboring 
settlements, confined the less distinctive colonies to their own 
limits, and compelled them also to develope and pursue an indi- 
vidual course of action. And the separate and independent 
origin of each settlement was calculated to increase and confirm 
this tendency to form individual communities and indej^endent 
colonies. They came at different times under separate charters, 
to occupy separate grants made to separate men or combina- 
tions of men, with difterent motives, objects, policies and ambi- 
tions. Unless, perhaps, the evangelization of the heathen must 
be considered an object held in common, as it was certainly a 
motive universally and sanctimoniously professed, but a motive 
whose practical operation might well excite our merriment, if its 
h3'pocrisy — we hope its unconscious hypoeris}^ — did not make 
us sad. For the practical conversion of the Indians seems to 
have been prosecuted very much after the fashion recommended 
by the Eev. Jonas Stockham, a zealous missionary in Virginia, 



16 

who wrote to the Council in England : " I am persuaded if Mars 
and Minerva goe hand in hand, they will effect more in an houre 
than those verball Mercurians in their lives ; and till their 
priests and ancients have their throats cut, there is no hope to 
bring them to conversion." 

The territorial grants, too, Avhich defined the limits of the 
several colonies, were made to parties who stood between the 
colonist and the crown, and who were charged with the power 
and responsibility of conducting the settlers to their new homes, 
pi'oviding for their welfare, and prescribing the laws and the 
organization of each distant community. 

The letters patent issued to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, for the 
settlement of Virginia, and repeated to Sir Walter Ealeigh, 
"Vest in him, his heirs and assigns forever, the lands so to be 
discovered and possessed, with the rights, royalties and juris- 
dictions, as well marine as other, within the said lands and 
countries, and the seas thereunto adjoining." "And further 
grants to Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns forever, full 
power and authority to correct, punish, pardon, govern and rule 
as well in causes capital or criminal as civil, all such the subjects 
of the Queen, or others who should inhabit the said countries, 
with power to constitute such statutes, laws and ordinances as 
should by him, his heirs or assigns, be devised or establislied for 
the better government of the people." 

What language could more clearly convey a coijumand, and 
bestow authority to found and establish a State? And this first 
charter to Sir Humphrey (Jilbert is a type of nearly all the 
charters subsequently granted; which, if they did not employ 
entirely tlie same language, were conceived very much in the 
same spirit. A spirit of independent action as States was thus 
infused into the organization of the colonies from their very 
origin. 

But, to appreciate the full force of this idea, Ave must go l)ack 
to the time of the first discovery of America, and realize for a 
moment the wonder and amazement, the eager curiosity and 
the intense excitement with which the people of the old worhl 
must have first heard the startling announcement, that a new 
continent had been discovered — a continent rich in gold, fertile 
in soil, and genial in climate, and so vast that innumerable 
States, like those they knew, might be carved out of its limits — 
that a new world was opened to enterprise and adventure. 



17 

How must their imaginations have revelled in dreams of the 
wealth and poAver such a land would bring to its possessors. 
How instinctively must they have felt that this wonderful land 
was to be the cradle of new States, the home of new nations, 
the seat of new empires. 

We must also, to some extent, recall the condition of Europe 
after America was discovered. Ancient learning- had just been 
revived; the art of printing had been discovered; the Eeforma- 
tion had begun; a higher and a better philosophy had been in- 
augurated ; thought and iuquiiy had received a fresh impulse ; 
the minds of men had been stimulated, their consciences had 
been aroused. The feudal system had been broken up, and its 
wrecks still strewed the face of Europe. Government was thus 
centralized, and its power established. The period of national 
segregation was sloAvly progressing, and the limits of States 
were, by degrees, being painfully ascertained with labor, with 
commotions, and with war. Governments were still rocking on 
their bases, and gradually settling down into their foundations. 
The consciences of men had not only been aroused by the Eef- 
ormation, but were often arrayed against the governments 
which sought to control them. The powers of government and 
the duty of its subjects were everywhere debated; and every- 
where, the State — its rights, its powers, and its duties — was the 
great idea which tilled the minds of men, and agitated their 
thoughts. But, especially, must we recall the condition of Eng- 
land at this time. We must go back to the reign of her wise 
and heroic Queen, who gave the key-note to her court, when to 
her counsellors, who urged her to marry, she exclaimed: "I am 
married already, and England is my husband." We must catch 
the spirit that burned in the bosoms of that true knight of his- 
tory, Sir Walter Raleigh and his kinsmen, those brave and gen- 
erous soldiers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Richard Grenville, 
as the}^ took counsel how to found an empire for their queen 
amidst the wealth and the wonders of the new world, which 
might check the power and balance the splendid conquests of 
the hated Spaniard. We must recall all that eventful period 
between the beginning of the Great Rebellion and the Revolu- 
tion of 1688, with all its persecutions and its suifering, its 
social disoi'ders and its political convulsions, and its great ques- 
tions of liberty of conscience and constitutional right, when the 
blood of Englishmen was poured out like water, and men staked 
2, 



18 

their lives upon their political opinions and their religious 
creeds. 

We must recall all these great elements of European and Eng- 
lish history, if we would realize the spirit of the age which sent 
forth the men who founded the colonies of America, and gave 
them the character of States. It was an age of amhitious 
achievement and daring adventure, an age in which the minds 
of men had been deeply agitated, and society had been violently 
broken into parties representing every shade of political opin- 
ion, and into sects holding every variety of ecclesiastical doc- 
trine. AYell might the unbroken silence and the deep repose of 
the distant shores and the boundless forests of the new world, 
attract the thoughts of such an age. Its vastness gave assurance 
that there was room enough for all opinions and all creeds. 
Well then might the men of that day seek to settle, far away 
from the turmoil, the violence, and the opposition which har- 
rassed them at home, new States with whicli they might iden- 
tify their names and their fame ; new States in which they 
might try their political theories, or at least hold them in peace; 
new States whore the fanatic might find. the power he so wildly 
craved, and the persecuted might tind the rest he so ardently 
longed for. 

And it is from this estimate of the spirit of that age, that I 
am led to believe that, under whatever charter they might be 
collected, under whatever leaders they might be sent, it would 
be the instinctive conviction of every colonist as he left the 
shores of the old world, that he went as one of the tbunders of a 
State; and his first impulse, as it was his first necessity, would 
be to lend his aid to the construction of a new and distinct po- 
litical community. And hence we may understand ami account 
for the tenacity with which the colonies, in the very first days 
of their existence, clung to that simplest element of a State, the 
integrity of their territorial limits. It was the source of 
frequent disputes, jealousies, and contentions, and sometimes 
almost led to a conflict of arms. 

Nor did South (-arolina i'orm any exception to this law of 
their emigration, which controlled the settlement of her sister 
colonies. 

When the great soul of Coligny, ()p})ressed witli sad forebod- 
ing and prophetic anxiety, meditated a refuge foi- his Protest- 
ant countrymen, it was to some new State founded by them in 
the New Worhl, that Ins thoughts turned for their asylum, and 



19 

it was to the shores of Carolina that he sent his first colony. 
Although Eibauld and Laudoniere have left no ti'ace behind 
them but a name for the soil and a romantic fame for them- 
selves, 3^et their expedition affords too correct an illustration 
of the spirit and the objects of the earliest settlements of the 
country, to be entirely overlooked. And, as if no earnest effort 
was to lose its reward, as if no generous prayer, no deep yearn- 
ing of the human heart, was to go unanswei-ed by Heaven, 
here, at last, after long years had passed, did tlie children of 
Coligny's beloved Huguenots find a refuge, and here have their 
children's children won honor and wealth, and the praise of a 
pure and unselfish life. 

And when, at last, after the lapse of near a century, the 
English colon}' came to the shores of Carolina, under William 
Sayle, they, too, came emphatically to found a State, with pe- 
culiar laws, with a local government and a recognized territory, 
and they came with a written constitution in their hands. The 
charter to the Proprietors of Carolina granted as ample powers 
as that to Sir Humphrey Gilbert I have already quoted. And 
they seem not to have been indisposed to exercise them to the 
fullest extent. Although it may be true, therefore, as has been 
so pithily and admirably stated by one, the clear philosophy of 
whose mind ever flows in a bright, and deep, and graceful 
stream of earnest thought, that " the settlement of South Caro- 
lina was begun as an investment,"* I think it is equallj^ clear 
that it was an investment in a State, and that the profits of 
that investment were to accrue from the value which the pros- 
perity, the population, the power, the social order, and the po- 
litical success of the new State was to give to the wide domain 
of its proprietors. 

The characters of the men who composed the comjiany of her 
founders, is itself a still further guarantee that sordid gain was 
not the only motive of her settlement. It may have had its 
influence, and that a large one, as the desire of gold and of gain 
moi'e or less mingled with the other elements of the emigration 
to all the colonies; but it was not the sole motive, and there 
was also something higher and better. Every one of the pro- 
prietors were men of talents, of great consideration, and com- 
manding position. Two of them, especially, occupy a very 
prominent place in histor3^ Shaftesbury and Clai-endon were 



*See Oration of W. H. Trescot before Historical Society, 19th May, 1859. 



20 

both scholars, philosophers and statesmen. The one was the 
author of the Habeas Corpus Act, the other was the author of 
the History of the Great Eebelliou. Both had borne the bur- 
thens and the responsibilities of office. Both had experienced 
the embarrassments, the imperfections and the inadequacy of 
all existing government. The minds of both had, doubtless, 
long dwelt on conceptions of a more perfect government, and 
theories of a more perfect constitution. In the characters of 
both, then, I think we have ample assurance that, in the settle- 
ment of our State, its founders did not only engage in a com- 
mercial adventure, but also undertook a philosophical achieve- 
ment. They not only sent their colonists to America with the 
fundamental constitutions in their hands, but in the obstinacy 
with which they persisted in requiring the colony to adhere to 
them, we have abundant evidence that these constitutions were 
not merely dictated by a capricious whim, or a passing fanc}', 
but were part of a well-considered and deeply-cherished project, 
and one which was not to be lightly abandoned. They finally 
so disgusted the people of Carolina with their unreasonable de- 
mands, in this and in other particulars, that the colony rose in 
rebellion, and got rid of " fundamental constitutions," " new 
regulations," and proprietors themselves, all at a stroke. So 
our State, which in later days has been reproached as the land 
of 2>olitical abstractions, was thus, in her earliest settlement, 
the scene of a political experiment. The experiment/ fiiiled, and 
these famous constitutions were never observed, but they no 
less clearly demonstrate the proposition I have endeavored to 
maintain, that in common with the founders of all the other 
colonies, the proprietors of South Carolina undertook to estab- 
lish a State. And this was the first cause of what we are con- 
sidering, the present sovereignty of the State. 

Another cause which contributed to the political individual- 
ity of the several colonies in their early history, is to be found 
in their " local circumstances;" a phrase which became well 
known afterwards in the disputes with England. It is not my 
purpose to investigate the "local circumstances" which led to 
our separation from the mother country. It is with the inde- 
pendence of the States of each other, and not with their in- 
dependence of England, that we are now concerned. But as 
the local circumstances which separated us from the Bi'itish 
empire might nearly all be embraced in the words " the broad 



21 

Atlantic," so might the local circumstances of their early his- 
tory, which separated one State from another State, be com- 
prised in the words " the trackless forest." 

Each separate colony when it reached the wild and desolate 
coast, had to cut a space and foothold for itself out of the dense 
primeval forest — a forest which had already swallowed up more 
than one band of hardy emigrants, with the power and the 
silence of the sea, and leaving no more trace behind. On the 
side of the land this trackless forest, filled with scattered bands 
of cruel, fierce and treacherous savages, encompassed the colony 
on every side, and for a long time shut it up in a complete and 
absolute isolation. While on the side of the sea, ships were few, 
the coast was unknown, and navigation was dillficult. Each 
colony, therefore, was compelled by necessity to pursue its own 
individual and peculiar policy, to follow the dictates of its omhi 
judgment in the administration of its public afftiirs, to look to 
its own courage, strength, prudence and vigilance to avert the 
dangers which menaced it, and to its own industry, frugality and 
enterprise, to provide the supplies which were necessary. So 
important do I consider the difficulty of communication between 
the colonies, as an effective cause in shaping the political in- 
dividuality of the States, that I am inclined to believe that if 
this age of scientific invention had commenced two centuries 
ago, and the power of steam, crushing the strength of the forest 
under its iron heel, and dashing the grasp of the waves from 
its crest, had accompanied the first settlers to their new homes, 
we should never have witnessed that system of independent 
States which we now possess. And if our country, as the home 
of one section of the great Anglo Saxon race, is to play that 
great part on the theatre of history and in the progress of the 
world, which we sometimes, perhaps, too boastfully claim for 
her, then possibly it may not be irrevei-ent or presnm])tuous to 
believe (I say it with hesitation) that in the wise providence of 
Heaven, these wonderful powers of modern science were with- 
held until the scheme of our confederated government was com- 
pleted, and then given to the world to aid our progress and 
crown our career. 

But a third, and perhaps the most i^owerful and efficient 
cause of the political individuality of the States, will be found 
in the distinct and independent history through which each 
colony was conducted. It bound the people of each colony 



more closely among themselves, it separated them more entirely 
from their neighbors. Taking, for example, the history of our 
own State: it begun with the first hour in which they spread 
their sails for their long and dangerous voyage. And Avhen. 
they had found their haven and reached the shore, they were 
met b}' the uplifted tomahawk of the savage, and the deadl}' 
diseases of an untried climate, more fatal than the Indian's 
hatchet. They found themselves in a wilderness, far from 
home, surrounded by savage enemies, in a strange climate, on 
an unknown soil, with the giant forest before them, and little 
else to help them but the axes on their shoulders and the weap- 
ons in their hands. How quickly and sharply must the bonds 
of brotherhood have been welded? How much were they to 
each other, how little was all the rest of the world to them ? 
And this was but a type of that wdiich was to follow\ For as 
the settlement was begun in loneliness, in difficulty, privation, 
anxiety and danger, so was it continued amidst weary labors, 
deadly sickness, sharp suffering, harrassing conflicts and inces- 
sant wars, encountered with the energy of a desperate courage, 
and borne with the patience of a necessary fortitude. These are 
the necessities which develope the powers of government, and 
these the circumstances which 2)lant that government in the 
soil, and give to it a local life and character. And the government 
which these necessities brought into life and action, was called 
upon to exercise all the highest powers of sovei'cignty. They 
punished crime and aduainistered justice, they im])0sed taxes 
and regulated trade, they made war and concluded peace with 
the Indians, they raised armies and fought battles Avith the 
Spaniards, tliey armed ships and captured prizes from the pi- 
rates, they made laws and created offices. All this, it is true, 
was done on a very narrow scale of action, but it was done with 
dignity and earnestness, with energy and persistence, and 
chiefly on their own responsibility and from their own resources. 
Thus the history of the colony went on, growing wider in 
its extent and stronger in its power to unite and harmonize its 
people, up to the time when the proprietary government was 
abolislied, and it entered upon a new career of activity, enter- 
prise and prosperity under the immediate auspices of the Crown 
and Parliament. But the Crown and Parliament found a pe()])le 
dee])ly imbued l)y their history with the spii'it of self-govern- 
ment and self-reliance — a people led by veterans in the perfor- 



23 

mance of public service, and in the administration of public 
law, who had borne the brunt of many a conflict and carried 
the scars of an honorable warfare — a people who would do them 
homage and pay them allegiance and give them affection, but 
would give them little of submission besides. Their firm tem- 
per and determined w411 — the life of a commonwealth within 
them — soon developed itself in another revolution, wider and 
deeper than the last, in which the rule of Great Britain was 
shaken off forever, the independence of the thirteen colonies 
was declared, and they stood before the world, both technically 
and practically, each a sovereign and independent State. As 
sovereign States they entered into mutual alliance. As sove- 
reign States they waged the unequal conflict of the Eevolu- 
tion. As such they triumphed and came out of the conflict, 
with, indeed, a warmer affection and a broader sympathy for 
each other, with a higher sense of their obligations, and a 
better knowledge of their historical relations to each other, but 
with a consciousness of individual life, and a self-centered 
strength, decider and stronger than before. 

To state, then, in a few words, the result of this enquiiy into 
the history of the sovereignty of the States, we may say that 
to these three great elements of our history — 1. The original 
purpose of the founders of the colonies. 2. Their own local cir- 
cumstances. 3. Their separate, distinct and independent histo- 
ries — are we to trace this remarkable feature of our political 
structure. Minor causes will, upon examination, doubtless be 
found to have contributed to the same result ; but these are the 
chief and the most important. As the result of these united 
causes, as I have endeavored to portra}^ them, and as the spe- 
cial fruit of colonial times, do we have that rich product of our 
political history and that peculiar form of our national strength, 
the sovereignty of each confederate State, Avhich is, I believe, 
the best, the most conservative, and the strongest institution we 
possess. 

When the American Eevolution was ended, and peace had 
begun, then came those august Conventions, those solemn delib- 
erations and anxious debates, which issued in the adoption of 
the first Articles of Confederation and afterwards in our present 
Federal Constitution. And the establishment of the American 
Confederacy is the great epoch of our history.- It threw a flood 
of light on the 2)ast ; it sent its beams far into the future. As 



24 

the great Cathedral of modern Rome consumed, in building, 
many long years of weary toil and painful effort, and on some 
Carnival night a light is seen to glimmer at some dim point of 
the shadowy structure, and then another light flashes out, and 
another, and another, and now the swift flashes spring from 
point to point, from angle to angle, from arch to arch, fi-om 
wall to roof, from roof to dome, from height to height up to 
the topmost ridge, and at last the wondrous pile stands grandly 
out, a living glory of sculptured light, so are there passages in 
history which seem to illuminate whole centuries of the past, 
and to bathe them in the gloAv of a mighty purjjose ; so, do I 
think, does the establishment of the American Confederacy on 
the basis of the sovereignty of the States seem to illuminate all 
the weary years of our early settlements and our colonial his- 
tory, as years of which the grand conception of a powerful yet 
conservative confederation of sovereign and independent States 
is the sublime result. 

And this law of our Colonial development has not only con- 
trolled the history of the original thirteen States, but like the 
law of crystalization in chemical substances, has been the law 
of our territorial accretion and our national expansion. After 
the Eevolution, Maine, and Vermont, and Tennessee, and Ken- 
tucky, are soon admitted into the Union, with all the rights 
and privileges of the original States. When Virginia cedes her 
vast domain to the Federal Grovernment, she annexes to her 
grant an express condition that it shall be formed into Eepubli- 
can States. When Texas is acquired by treaty, it is divided 
into vStates. When California is annexed b3' conquest, the flag 
of a State soon waves over its golden sti'eams and its mines of 
treasure. And now, from the broad Atlantic to the bright Pa- 
cific, the crystal cleavage is fast shooting its lines of growth 
and power, across the dark spaces that intervene, is fast tracing- 
out the limits of new States, and carrying Avith it the brillumt 
light of wholesome knowledge, individual intelligence, social 
strength, conservative institutions and a generous civilization, 
is fast shaping for the brow of the New World on its most fer- 
tile plains and amid its grandest scenes, a noble crown of wise, 
prosperous, and powerful States. 

I have said that perhaps we might find in the brief history 
of South Carolina, the development of great principles of na- 
tional life and constitutional law, which may well engage our 



25 

thoughts, and arrest our attention. And in the history of the 
sovereignty of the State, we find an illustration. 

There is no more curious and instructive feature of the geo- 
graphy of the Avorld, than its division into countries, kingdoms, 
states and empires, which are the homes of political communi- 
ties, differing from each other as distinctly as one man differs 
from another, governing themselves according to their peculiar 
laws, and by their own social strength, and permitting no stran- 
ger to intrude into the administration of their affairs, or to 
violate the sanctity of their soil. 

Now the law of social life which has developed the sovereignty 
of the States, is the same as that which has caused this segre- 
gation of nations and their self-government. 

Leaving out of view the strong arm of conquest, they both 
proceed upon the great law of human sympathy. The sympa- 
thies of men do not reach beyond the pale of their common 
knowledge, their common welfare, and their common histories. 
Mankind have instinctively felt that it was not safe to take into 
their counsels those who could not sj^mpathize with them, nor 
to entrust the powers of government to those who could not 
feel with them. And this instinct is based upon the broadest 
principles of a true philosophy. For the great qualification for 
counsel and for government is wisdom. And wisdom is the 
result of a comparison of knowledge. And there are large and 
precious stores of knowledge, which can only come by actual 
contact, and through the instincts and affections. As only he, 
therefore, who has actually stood upon the soil of a country, 
has traversed its plains, has followed the course of its rivers, and 
climbed its mountains, who has felt the breath of its climate, 
has walked under its suns and slept under its nights, can ever 
understand the true geography of a country, the character of 
its surface, the aspect of its scenery, and the qualities of its cli- 
mate ; so onl}' he who has been rocked in the cradle of a coun- 
try's institutions, who has had his hopes revived, his fears al- 
layed, and his confidence established by their presence and their 
strength, can ever know their value ; so only he who has stood 
in the actual presence of a people, has come into actual contact 
with their social condition, and has stood under the influence 
of their social agitations and their political movements, can 
ever understand the aspect of their affairs, the bearing of their 
progress, or the necessities of their history. As only the moth- 



26 

ei* can ever know the eager joy and unfatliomable j-earnings of 
a mother's love, so only the chikh^en of the soil can ever feel 
the mysterious magic of home and fatherland. As only ho 
whose life has been strengthened and ennobled by the love of a 
mother, upon whose shoulder he has leaned his weary head for 
comfort and for counsel, and then gone to his work and to his 
duty, with his energies refreshed and his motives higher and 
purer, can ever understand the sheltering affection, the jealous 
carefulness and the holy wisdom of the heart of such a son. So 
only he who has strained his countr}^ to his bosom in a close 
and strong embrace, who has felt the throbs of her great 
heart, has held it so close that he could feel its slightest flutter 
and hear its softest murmiir, has felt it beat fully and fi-eely 
against his own, has felt it beat wildly and tumultuously with its 
unbridled impulses and its stormy passions, has felt it beat 
slowly, solemnly and grandly, with its wants, its hopes, aiul 
its affections, can ever know how to protect and serve and 
honor her. When strangers undertake the task their very 
kindness is cruelty, and their most elaborate wisdom tlie su- 
premest folly. 

It is this which makes the liberty of self-government, within 
the limits of our sectional interests, our social sympathies, and 
our political fellowship, the most precious of all liberties — that 
elementary liberty to which all nations have instinctively clung, 
and in whose sacred name so many crimes have been commit- 
ted, so many follies have been perpetrated. This 'it is which 
makes the idea of " the solidarity of human rights," so vaunt- 
ingly proclaimed by the Hungarian orator, who not long since 
preached through our land a political crusade against the estab- 
lished governments of Europe, the craziest notion that ever 
troubled the brain of a dreaming enthusiast, or was coined into 
the phrases of a specious rhetorician. It is this which lifts the 
doctrine of non-intervention among nations, from the position 
of a mere maxim of political prudence, to the place of a great 
principle of historical law and international justice. And it is 
this which makes the sovereignt}^ of the State so valual)le an 
inheritance to us. 

Thus, then, have 1 endeavored to trace the origin of the sov- 
ereignty of the State, and to suggest its importance. And as 
we arc having a long talk together about the dear old Common- 
wealth, let us dwell for a moment upon two characteristics, 



27 

which I think may be jnstty claimed for her. One of these I 
would discuss for her defence ; the other, I would mention for 
our own profit as an admitted fact of history. When in the 
political controversies wdiich have arisen in the country, the 
arguments of the State, as represented by the advocates of her 
principles and the defenders of her interests could not be an- 
swered, she has been met by the easy sneer that she deals in 
abstractions. And yet if there is any quality more prominent 
than the rest in her histor}^, it is her strong common sense. I 
do not mean to insist that this quality has been displayed in all 
the details of her minor legislation, for this would lead to end- 
less dispute ; but I mean that in all the great questions of con- 
stitutional law, political organization and social policy, which 
have arisen out of her domestic government and her federal 
relations, this quality of a strong common sense has been most 
strikingly manifested. For what is common sense ? It is called 
common sense, not because it is a common possession of com- 
mon men ; not because it appeals to the vulgar motives and the 
meaner rules of conduct, which, with a biting sarcasm, such a 
definition would imply are the common motives of mankind. 
But it is so called, because as it refers to statesmanship, it is the 
application of the modes of reasoning, and the rules of conduct 
which we apply to the affairs of common life — to the solution 
of the great problems of political action and social law. It is 
that faculty of the mind which with the swiftness and power of 
an electric current reduces a question to the original elements 
which enter into its construction, examines with searching tests 
their nature and their affinities, and promptly returns the an- 
swer which solves the difficulty. It is the endowment of a 
mind of such width and strength, as to be able to carry in its 
thoughts the complicated and comprehensive principles of pub- 
lic law and national action, as easily and as steadily as we carry 
in our minds the rules and the maxims of common life. It is 
the habit of a mind which is so constantly and clearly familiar 
with the great laws and principles of moral and political 
science, that it instinctively flashes through the intricacies of a 
question of pi-actical legislation or public conduct, and with 
scarcely the consciousness of a process of reasoning, forms its 
judgment and decides its course. It resembles the poetic fac- 
ulty in the swiftness and power of its analysis and the clear- 
ness of its perceptions, but it differs from it in this : that while 



28 

the poet constructs the conceptions of his genius by the stand- 
ards of his ideal world, the statesman of common sense builds 
with the rude and imperfect materials of practical life. The 
poet builds as he wills, the man of common sense builds as he 
can. They both employ the same powers, but they are occu- 
pied with different subjects. They both analyze to the same 
principles, but they use them for different purposes. As in 
common life not one, but many considerations and many mo- 
tives combine to determine our daily conduct, so the statesman 
of common sense views every question in its concrete com- 
binations and its varied relations, and determines his action with 
a wise and liberal regard to every element which should occupy 
his attention and receive his care. The short-sighted in com- 
mon life, and the sciolist in politics, are constantly governed by 
motives of temporary expediency and a casual convenience 
and profit. The man of strong common sense, both in jirivate 
and in public life, perceives the more remote as well as tiie im- 
mediate consequences, and will not sacrifice the benefit and the 
blessing of a great principle for a momentary gain. 

The term "mere abstractionist," as commonly understood, is 
another name for ignorance and prejudice. The statesman of 
common sense, is a man of comprehensive thought and liberal 
knowledge. His mind is full of abstractions, but he combines 
them and applies them to the purposes of a practical wisdom 
and a large benevolence. In short, common sense in public life 
is that political sagacity which has given to us the great names 
of history, and achieved for us the great triumphs of national 
power and constitutional liberty. It came down to us fi-om our 
English ancestoi'S, and there is no feature of English pliilosophy, 
literature and jiolitics, wliich stands out more boldl}^ than that 
strong common sense which permits and requires active, vigor- 
ous, profound, and, above all, earnest, thought and sjieculation, 
but which confines these within the limits of our knowledge 
and our comprehension, and applies them to the purposes of a 
practical wisdom. It is this admirable quality thus understood, 
which, notwithstanding the sneers of her opponents, I claim for 
the political action of South Carolina from the time when her peo- 
ple obstinately set aside the phih)soj)hical intricacies of Locke's 
Fundamental (constitutions, and wouUl have nothing to do with 
them, to the time wlien she established the Avise and conserva- 
tive compromises of her State Constitution, which have been 



29 

so eminently sueceasful ; to the time when she engrafted uj^on 
her society the wholesome strength of the Common Law, and 
secured the independence of her judiciary, to the time when she 
maintained the practical wisdom and the common justice of free 
trade, and insisted upon the historical fact of the sovereignty of 
the States. 

The other characteristic of the State, to which I have alluded 
as an admitted fact of history, which it would be profitable for 
us, especially at this time, to remember, is the testimony of her 
whole history, that no statesman has won fame, and honor, and 
power, in South Carolina, who has not only been distinguished 
for the commanding powers of his intellect, and the unblemished 
integrity of his public life, but also by a calm and selt-respectful 
dignity, and a simple and unsophisticated earnestness, neither 
contaminated by a restless vanity, nor disfigured by an intem- 
perate violence ; and all this relieved and adorned by a frank 
courtesy and a generous forbearance, which can encounter the 
honest blows of a brave adversary without loss of temjjer, as 
Avell as without loss of strength, and which recognizes in his 
opponents, not the enemies of himself, but the advocates of their 
principles and the champions of their cause, and refuses to cross 
swords with them on any other terms, or to permit the conti'o- 
versy to be brought down to any lower level. Men of other 
natures may, at times, have acquired a temporary notoriety and 
a local reputation, but they have never won the heart of the 
State, nor gained her loyal confidence. Look at the long list of 
her worthies — I need not repeat their familiar names — they will 
all bear the test. 

But in order that we may receive a fuller and a clearer im- 
pression of these rare qualities which I have claimed for the 
public men of South Carolina, let me select two names, not be- 
cause they are pre-eminent, but because I have felt es2)ecially 
drawn towards them, and because their memory will be gi'ate- 
ful to you. They both belong to a generation that is fiist fold- 
ing its arms to rest in the grave. One of them has long slept 
the sleep of the just; the otlier has just gone to his honored 
rest. Let us recall the names of Eobert Y. Hayne and William 
C. Preston. 

1 need not say to you, that Mr. Hayne was a bright example 
of all the best qualities of our public men ; that his life was 
pure, and his intellect clear, vigorous and commanding; that as 



30 

he was energetic, firm, and enthusiastic, so was he frank, gen- 
erous, patient and courteous. His public life comprises a period 
of the most intense political excitement in the State, yet through 
all its storms, these great qualities shone brightly out. His 
mind and his character were both eminently practical; and as 
the most prominent feature of his character was an "ardent, 
zealous and uncalculating" devotion to duty, so Avas he able to 
present the reasons and the considerations which had satisfied 
his own mind with a clearness and a force of argument which 
carried conviction to others, and with a beauty of language, an 
eloquence of expression and a gallant enthusiasm, which warmed 
and delighted his lieai*ers. He was one of the handsomest men 
of his day, and no one who has seen him will easily forget the 
bright and beautiful smile which beamed from his eye and 
played in the lines of his lips, nor the outlines of that noble 
brow marked with the lines of jjatriotic anxiety, but with no 
trace of unworthy passion or selfish care on its lofty front. 
Long will I remember the last time I saw him in life, sitting 
among our professors on the platform of the old college chapel 
His presence that daj' among the youthful students of the State, 
seemed to me like the cool evenings of spring, and the memory 
of his life like the fruitful showers of summer, which bring the 
glad harvests of autumn. His memorj^ should, I think, be pecu- 
liarly dear to the people of South (^^arolina; for he was her 
faithful representative and her loyal champion in the hour of 
her sorest trial and her greatest need. It should be proudly 
cherished by the city of Charleston, not only because he was 
her own son, but because in his declining years he put ott' the 
robe of the senator, and the honors of the executive, to become 
her first mayor, and lent a dignity and a grace to the ofiice, 
whicli it has never since lost. His menior}' shouhl be es])ecially 
grateful to the women of vSouth (Jarolina, not only for the pure 
and gentle graces oi' liis (h)mestic life, but because all who re- 
member to have heard liim speak, must remembei" witii w hat 
graceful eloquence and knightly tenderness it was his wont to 
appeal to " the fair daughters of Carolina." It was a favorite 
passage in all his ])ublic addresses, and it seeme(l as if \\v (h'sired 
to invoke the purity' and the gentleness of woman to pnsidr 
over the ruder conflicts of political life, and to attest that the 
bearing of ever}' combatant was the l)earing of a true knight, 
that every blow was fairly- delivered, and ever}- lance was gal- 



31 

lantly broken. I have paused to pay this tribute to the mem- 
ory of Robert Y. Ilayue, because his name was blended with 
ni}' earliest dreams of the hero and the orator; the thought and 
the experience of maturer years has not dimmed the pure and 
soft light which siirrounds his memory. 

And looking up from the grave of Hayne, our eyes but yes- 
terday might have rested ujion the noble form of William C. 
Preston, bowed, indeed, with the infirmities of age and the in- 
evitable sorrows of life, but still recalling the daj's of his power, 
when the listening Senate hung upon his words, and the multi- 
tude was swayed hy his eloquence. To-day he lies in the majesty 
of death. He, too, during a life which has just come to its close, 
was a noble representative of the highest qualities of Carolina 
statesmanship. I think we are apt to underrate his powers of 
argument in our admiration of his vivid imagination and his 
brilliant rhetoric. His reasoning was not conceived according 
to the forms and the methods of an elaborate analysis and a 
strict logical deduction, but he drew such vivid pictures of 
things, men and events, in their natural order and according to 
their true relations, that his hearers for themselves caught the 
idea upon which he wished to insist, and arrived for themselves 
at the conclusion to which he wished to bring them. But it is 
as her great orator that the State is justly proud of him. And 
to estimate his power as an orator, we must not confine our- 
selves to his powers of argument; but we must recall, also, the 
nervous magnetism of his nature, and all the elements of his 
unrivalled action ; we must recall the quivering muscles, the 
tremulous lips, the cloud and the sunshine of his brow as his face 
was swept by the " shadowy gust " of passion ; we must recall 
that noble form, now lifted to its majestic height and swayed 
l)y emotion, like some gi-and oak with its branches rocking in 
the gale, now bending with the pliancy of the willow, to the 
attitudes of eager po'suasion and jjathetic appeal, until it seem- 
ed as if '' his very body thought;" we must recall that glorious 
voice, now clear and strong as an organ's swell, now full and 
soft as woman's gentlest speech, while every word was wrapped 
and penetrated by a tone like the rich clash of stricken silver, — 
the tremulous agitation of a deep and fall emotion. We must 
recall all these physical gifts, as well as his intellectual endow- 
ments, if we would renlize the power of his oi-atory in the day 
of its strength and in the hour of its inspiration, when it was 



32 

borne forward on some wave of thought, which, reaching deeper 
and rising higher than its fellows, gathered energ}- and power 
as it rose, flashed with a snowy crest of gorgeous language, and 
broke in a glorious burst of eloquence, which swept all lighter 
objects from its path, and thundered against the bulwarks of the 
stoutest opposition, and hotly wrestled for the mastery, and 
tried all the strength of its material. But though his concep- 
tions were bold, his thoughts earnest and vigorous, and his lan- 
guage passionate and almost impetuous, he never, for a moment, 
lost the beauty and the grace of a courteous, frank and gene- 
rous nature. And now, in the solemn chamber of death, what 
generous heart will remember aught but his gi-eat gifts and his 
noble seiwices, what voice will not be lifted to crown him with 
the State's honor and affection, and to ask for peace and bless- 
ing upon his name and memory ! 

Such, then, have been some of the characteristics of the sov- 
ereignty of the State, and such the men by whom they have 
been illustrated. And now, if this sovereignty of the State has 
been of any value to us in the past, if it has been that institn 
tion which has made the successful government of this confed- 
eracy possible at all, and if we look to it in the future as a 
safeguard of our rights, and as the strongest bulwark of our 
interests and our institutions, we must iiiake ourselves masters 
of our State history, we must fill our minds with the knowl- 
edge of its details, we must become deeply imbued with its 
spirit of independent responsibility and self-reliant strength. 

The most interesting passage of prophecy, is that which re- 
veals the destiny of the scattered tribes of Israel, and the most 
wonderful fact in the history of races is the wide dis2)crsion and 
yet the complete unity of the Jewish people. And when 
Heaven wouhl employ a human agency to work this miracle of 
modern times, and would set apart a people to be the ark of its 
prophecies and the ])riests of its crowning promise, who shoidd 
be scattered among all nations, yet mingling with none, he con- 
ducted them through a long and eventful national life, and gave 
them a magnificent hod}' of history, which was to be the bond of 
their union and tlie badge of their race. And at this day the 
sublime history which recounts the meek wisdom of Moses, the 
uncalculating courage, the devoted faith and generous loj-alty 
of Joshua, the glory of her Judges, the story of her Ark, and the 
splendor of hei" ancient Temple, the awful utterances of her 



83 

Prophets, and the sok-inn rliaiits ol' her Royal Poet, is still the 
spell over seuttored Israel, which has made them citizens of 
the world, yet one nation, which has kept the purity of their 
race unblemished by contact with other nations, and their blood 
uncorrupted by admixture with any people, waiting for the ap- 
pointed time, and for the work they were chosen to do. While 
the Christian Church, too, feels this bond of union, and she, too, 
draws a full tide of inspiration from the grand memories of her 
elder sister, and with a higher and a purer faith, she too, waits 
for the time when the elder branch, which was cut off that 
she might be grafted in,, shall swell with the sap of new life, 
shall lift its branches to heaven and spread them wide over the 
world, and shower down upon the earth the lavish fruits and 
blessings of restored Israel. And so must our State history be 
the strength of our State life, and the bond of its citizenship. 
It is an inheritance which has come doAvn to us, either to 
squander and ncgject, or to cherish and preserve. If it is of 
any worth to us, we must accept it heartily and understand it 
thoroughl3^ 

But there is a result of historical study which reaches deeper 
and touches us more nearly as individuals. I suppose there is 
no thoughtful man who has not at times been oppressed by a sense 
of the feebleness and insignificance of his individual life. The 
warring elements of nature overwhelm him, the upheavings of 
evil dismay him, and the commotions of society and the convul- 
sions of governments confound and bewilder him; while from 
all the voices of nature and fi'om all the stories of life comes the 
sad refrain, " We are passing away." The work before us is 
boundless, our life is brief, and our strength is as nothing. But 
when we go back to the sources of our history and the origin of 
our country's life ; when we watch the march of events as they 
first begin their feeble progress, and then look as they recruit 
their ranks, and stretch their lines and crowd the spaces, and 
listen as the steps of their progress arc heard quicker and firmer, 
and the music of their movement first faintly reaches the ear, 
and then louder and clearer swells upon the breeze, and the 
whole army of events is upon us, with their banners floating on 
the Avind and their arms gleaming in the sun, and we stand in 
the present amidst the results of the past — results of civiliza- 
tion, results of philosophy, results of science, results of war, re- 
sults of peace, results of civil commotions and constitutional 
3 



34 

triumphs — it is theu tliiit we feel ourselves but eompiiuious of 
the might}' hosts of the servants of Heaven, and the sense of 
our insiguitlcanee is gone, and we turn to the duties of the day 
and tlie Avork of the hour with enei-gy and with cheerfulness, 
with a brighter hope and a higher and purer faith. And as, 
amidst all the violence of the elements, amidst desolating storms 
and burning heats, and blasting cold, man, by the prerogative 
of his reason and the power of his intellect, stands next to the 
Creator and master of nature by his knowledge of nature ; so 
does the reverent student of history, by his submissive percep- 
tion of the laws of life, and by his intelligent sympathy with 
the great Arbiter of destiny, stand master of fate by his knowl- 
edge of Providence. 

In view, then, of ail these considerations affecting ns as citi- 
zens and touching us as individuals, who will not join us in 
studj'iug and preserving the history of our State ? Who will 
not sit down with us at the feet of our venerable mother, and 
listen, as from her records she tells of her trials and her 
triumphs, and recalls the noble deeds that were done and the 
wise words that Avere spoken in the olden time — as with linger- 
ing memories she recounts the names, and with fond affection 
shows to us the life-like portraits of those favored sons who 
have been to her the croAvn of her honor and the right arm of 
her strength, and who, without passing the limits of truth or of 
modesty, we may say have made her histoiy illustrious, inas- 
much as America has occupied no mean place among the nations 
of the earth, and the State of South Carolina, through the 
genius of her statesmen and the activity of her sovereignty 
has exercised no mean influence over the liistory of America. 



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